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Rutland's springs and wells The 1884 OS maps show lots of wells. This article does not attempt to list any of them. However sometimes the OS maps state 'spring', which I have included. Mostly I have focused on named wells, drawing upon the research of Janet Bord and Jeremy Harte. Surprisingly there doesn't seem to have been any eighteenth century spas anywhere in Rutland. Yet there is ironstone so chalybeate springs must have been known. Ashwell Ashwell's well in 2024. The well at Ashwell has been referred to both as a wishing well and a holy well. This is presumably the well which gave the village its name, although it is some distance from the centre of the settlement. An inscription over the well reads: All ye who hither come to drink Rest not your thoughts below Look at that sacred sign and think Whence living waters flow. The cross (‘that sacred sign’ of the verse) on top of the well-house is a recent one dating from the late 1990s, replacing one that was lost by 1986. The gate is also from the late 1990s. I think the cross and gate were part of millennial celebrations in 1999. The function of these wellhouses (that look rather like large dog kennels) was to stop animals polluting the water. There's an Arabic expression which, in translating, states that 'It only take one dog to pollute a whole pool of rosewater.' You get my drift… The main structure looks to be eighteenth century. But I think the inscription was inserted in the 1880s, or soon after, to mimic the inscription at nearby Greetham (see below). The well is a few hundred yards to the south-west of the church, where the Langham road joins the Oakham road. Clipsham Both a well and a spring are shown on the 1884 OS map. Egleton An 'An(n)well Bryge' is recorded in 1566 and 1651. Presumably this is a contraction of 'St Anne's Well Bridge'. Likely the prefix 'saint' was dropped after the Reformation. Exton There is a Hawkeswell Spring in the village. Greetham Greetham's conduit head in 1988. Strictly this doesn't belong here as it's neither a spring nor a well. Instead it is a conduit head. When I first visited in November 1988 there was still a metal cistern behind the structure, but that has long since been removed. I've included it because the inscription is almost identical to the one at Ashwell. All ye who hither come to drink Rest not your thoughts below Remember Jacob's Well and think Whence living waters flow. Now everything about this structure is High Gothic of the 1880s. And this was the time when the Scripture Movement was underway. 'Jacob's Well' and 'living waters' alude to the Gospel of St John 4:1–42, which recounts Jesus's encounter with a Samaritan woman. Jacob's Well is an historical site in Samaria. Jesus asks the woman for a drink. During their conversation, Jesus tells the woman that he can provide 'living water', which, unlike the water from the well, will satisfy thirst forever and become 'a spring of water welling up to eternal life', a metaphor for the spiritual life and eternal salvation Jesus offers. My guess – and it can be no more – is that the folks at Ashwell felt they had to 'keep up with the Joneses' at Greetham so inserted a similar inscription in their village's wellhouse. Oakham Our Lady's Well with members of a Mercian Mysteries field trip in 1990. In a previously-unpublished account of a visit in 1988, Bob Morrell wrote: Our Lady's Well, Oakham, has the distinction of having been specially visited by a member of the royal family, though whether out of curiosity or for a cure is not made clear. It is now in the middle of a housing development, which bodes ill for its future. A visit in June 1988 found the spring to bubble up under a hawthorn bush to make a clear pool approximately four inches across. The spring was approached across marshy ground till a muddy, stagnant pool, or puddle, is reached, at the side of which the spring is located. We were informed that the site was to be landscaped and the spring preserved. There were no structural remains obvious near the spring. Before the development scheme the spring was situated in a field on the left side of Burley Road some 400 yards from the Odd House Inn. The water was considered particularly valuable in treating eye disorders and according to a report dated 1844, it was 'visited by persons who have faith in the healing powers of the water'. However, before the water could be used a pin had to be thrown into the spring. The report mentioned refers to the writer having recovered several pins from the spring. In medieval times local clergy obtained a considerable income from pilgrims visiting the spring. In 1881 royalty in the person of the then Princess of Wales visited the well when staying at Normanton Park. The Chriswell, presumably the Christ Well, or Christ's Well, was located on the other side of Burley Road and also considered as a healing well. There is a story attached to this spring dating from the first world war of a Belgian refugee taking a sick cow to it to drink the water – and it recovered! This tale is similar to one about a racehorse and Shearsby Spa, and may well be a variation of that tale. This spring is also threatened by commercial development, and on 11 June, 1988, when visited, there was no evident flow from what is thought to be the source of the spring. Two residents of the new estate said the foundations of a house at the other side of the road to the spring had been dug exceptionally deep and continually filled with water overnight. Ryhall Starting with William Stukeley in 1736 and repeated by twentieth century folklorists there is supposedly a 'St Ebba's Well' at Ryhall. More pedantically, 'St Eabba's well ford'. However earlier forms of the name reveal it was 'Stapleford', a ford marked by a stapol or large (and probably carved) wooden post. Howver there is no record of a 'stapol well ford' so quite how the well crept in by the early eighteenth century is unknown. So whether this was a named well is unclear. So maybe Ryhall doesn't belong in this list. Although it is probably helpful to point out that, despite several authors stating there was a St Ebba's Well, in reality there was no St Ebba. More details here. Tinwell As with Ashwell and Whitwell this village name suggests there was a notable spring. The early forms of the name are Tedinwelle and Tineguella suggesting originally Tyningawella, the 'spring of Tyni's people'. It's reasonable to assume that The Hall is on the site of an early estate centre which would need to have a good source of water. So my best guess is that the eponymous well was in what is now the grounds of The Hall. The 1884 OS map shows a pump, which plausibly is the successor to the original open spring. Uppingham There was a White Spring and a Honey Pot Spring to the south of the town. 'Honey pot' place names usually denote somewhere muddy, which is consistent with springs. Whitwell Whitwell church in 2008. The nave is on the left and the chancel on the right. The village takes its name from a white well. In other words, water that was exceptionally clear and pure. You can't see the well anymore. But you can stand above it. At least when the church is unlocked. Furthermore the well is at the top of a hill. Its an artesian well, meaning the water comes from nearby higher ground. But clearly a surprising location for a water source. The locals decided it was so pure and the location so remarkable that they built an early church immediately to the west. Now there's no obvious Anglo-Saxon stonework inside or outside Whitwell's church. But the length and width of the nave are spot on for the earliest single-cell types of churches. But then things get a bit awkward because fashions change and folks add chancels to the east end of what then becomes the nave. But what if there's a well just to the east of the nave? No worries, we'll just feed the water into a pipe and the outlet from the pipe can be down the hill outside the churchyard. Actually when chancels were first being built the notion of pipework was a long way in the future. But the water could be routed away in a ditch until, say, the eighteenth century when the pipework arrangement would be installed. Several people have told me that after heavy rain they clearly heard the sound of water flowing under the chancel floor. Unfortunately whenever I've visited Whitwell the church is locked with no information about keyholders. I know of two other churches where there is a spring under the chancel. One is Whitwick in Leicestershire where the water is piped into the nearby Grace Dieu Brook. The other is Romsley in Worcestershire where St Kenelm's Well still flows from the east end of the parish church. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. Copyright Bob Trubshaw 2026 No unauthorised copying or reproduction except if all following conditions apply a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement). b: No changes are made. c: No charge is made. www.hoap.co.uk/rutland

Rutland's history home page what's new? glossary bibliography Rutland's geology Rutland's boundaries Rutland's rivers long, long ago prehistoric Rutland Roman Rutland long ago Anglo-Saxon Rutland Rutland's place-names waterborne transport around the sixth century Rutland's early churches Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Rutland The Matter of Rutland what the Normans did for Rutland Romanesque sculpture in Rutland Rutland's royal forests Rutland in medieval times Rutland's scratch dials Rutland's medieval carvings Rutland's sepulchral effigies Rutland's saltways Rutland in Tudor times Dissolution in Rutland not that long ago Rutland in the 17th century pinfolds and pounds in Rutland dovecotes in Rutland Rutland in the 18th century turnpiking Rutland Rutland's springs and wells changes in Rutland's agriculture since 1800 seems like yesterday Rutland's dialect Rutland's folk customs travellers in Rutland watermills and windmills in Rutland breweries in Rutland gasworks in Rutland ironstone quarrying in Rutland Zeppelins over Rutland redundant telephone exchanges in Rutland Second World War in Rutland WWII airfields and pillboxes in Rutland the making of Rutland Water Rutland Weekend Television free online history resources Victoria County History: Rutland volume one Victoria County History: Rutland volume two free PDFs of Rutland Record issues 1 to 50 old OS maps Historic England Listed buildings database Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland Open Domesday English Place-Name Society database Wikipedia list of places in Rutland (with links to village entries) Wikipedia list of people from Rutland researching and writing local history getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around Rutland Belton-in-Rutland History Society Cottesmore History and Archaeology Group Langham Village History Group Lyddington Manor History Society Rutland Local History and Record Society with free PDFs of over forty issues of the Rutland Record Uppingham Local History Study Group you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Vale of Belvoir Chronicle Barrowby Until Now website